


i'm a fool wrapped up in you

by piielle



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cool, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oneshot, Random & Short, Short One Shot, idk how to tag, this is uhhhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 03:45:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15900231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piielle/pseuds/piielle
Summary: “Hi.”“Hi.”And so, it began.





	i'm a fool wrapped up in you

Love is a luxury. 

People say it’s one few can afford, but for some reason I give away my love like I’m a billionaire. I’m not denying that love is a luxury, because, God, it is. It is. But love is unlimited. I love my art teacher, and I love the way thunder sounds and feels, rattling my bones, and I love him. I think the most love I’ve ever given was to him. The difference is that I can assume my art teacher loves me back, even just a little, and I can assume the thunder loves me, because it visits me and gives me background noise while I do my Calculus homework, but I can’t assume that he loves me. 

I can assume that he hates me, though. And I do. I do assume that he hates me. I can assume it when he doesn’t laugh at my jokes, and chooses others over me, and speaks to acquaintances more enthusiastically than to me. I can assume it in the way he doesn’t listen when I speak, and in the way that he brushes me off when I open up about my alcoholic father. I can see it in the way he doesn’t know anything about me. 

Maybe that’s on me. Maybe because I don’t know how to open up. Maybe because I think everything is a sign of rejection. Maybe because I don’t think anyone could ever love me at all, let alone as strongly as I love them. Maybe because love is a luxury, and while I am giving mine away like candy, people are taking it from me. Either nobody is offering any to me, or I never learned how to take it from them.   
__

It’s past midnight—one of those especially dark nights. Keith likes these the best because it feels like he’s alone in the world. Since he can’t see anyone else, nobody else can see him either. 

He came out here around 9:30 to take the trash out, but he somehow ended up in the grass, thinking. This isn’t surprising. It feels like all he ever does is think. Sometimes, he wishes he could just take action. Most of the time, he thinks that it’s already too late to do anything about it.

In the grass, he thinks about how he has to be awake in less than 7 hours and how he still has over 3 hours of homework left to do, but he still can’t bring himself to get up. He can’t get up because looking at the stars feels like escaping to another place, and right now he’d rather be anywhere but here.

He thinks about how he would do anything for him, but it would be a miracle if he would even text him back. And although he’s 17, and it’s fleeting, in this moment, it feels like there’s nothing more significant than how unimportant he is to this person who he loves more than anything in the world, more than anyone he’s ever loved before. 

But, the responsibility of AP Physics demands Keith’s attention, and he’d rather pass the class than ponder over his small life in this patch of grass, where he has nothing to think of except motion in one dimension and unrequited love.  
__

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

And so, it began.  
__

“Are you new?” comes from red lips, the color of cherry slushy Keith used to drink as a child. 

“No, I’ve been here for 4 years,” he says. He’s been asked this before. He doesn’t exactly stand out from the crowd. 

“Oh, sorry. I never noticed you before.” 

“It’s fine. I get that a lot.”

The boy has really tan skin.   
__

“Did you do the Calculus homework?” says the boy, who he now knows as Lance. 

“Yeah, do you need help?”

“God, yes, that would be great. I’m really good at Algebra, Geometry, whatever. But Calculus? I just don’t understand it.” 

Keith doesn’t understand much. Calculus, though? Keith does understand Calculus. 

“I can help you. Want to meet in the library after school?”  
__

[Lance, 9:26 p.m.]: thanks for helping me today!!  
[Lance, 9:26 p.m.]: seriously i never thought i would be able to understand calculus. ur a miracle worker  
[Lance, 9:28 p.m.]: also, denny’s is having $5 grand slams tomorrow from 6 to 8. come with me??

[Keith, 9:30 p.m.]: No problem. You’re really good at math, Calculus is just a little harder to get started with.   
[Keith, 9:31 p.m.]: And sure. Sounds fun.   
[Keith, 9:31 p.m.]: What’s a grand slam?

[Lance, 9:31 p.m.]: oh my god

__

In the grass, under the stars. This time, not alone. “So, I heard this thing about black holes one time from my Statistics teacher that if you somehow fell into a black hole, there is a possible situation in which, from the outside, it would look like you got incinerated, ashes and all. But inside the black hole, you would be perfectly fine, alive and well, because of the laws of gravity and Einstein and whatever.” 

Black eyebrows knit in thought. “Maybe that’s what I should do.” 

Breathy laughter. “Fall into a black hole?”

“Well, yeah. Then I could be in my own little world, unseen from the outside. Like how I feel when I’m here, looking at the stars.” A thoughtful hum from pink lips.

“I wouldn’t want you to fall into a black hole. Then how would I get nights like these in the grass with you?” A small smile, hidden behind the blanket wrapped around the pale boy’s shoulders. A gentle shoulder nudge. Silence.   
__

A deep breath. The golden boy turns his head slightly to look Keith in the eyes. A small smile. Warm fingertips brush the side of his arm. Butterflies.

This time, they’re not in the grass. They’re in the sand. Keith took him to his place, in the grass, and it was Lance’s turn to take Keith to his place—the beach.

“Sometimes, I remember how small I am. Well, I always remember how small I am. And even though I know I’m just this one person in this world of billions of people, who are all also small, and also insignificant in the big picture, I can’t get out of my mind. It feels like the most important thing in the world that I can’t seem to calm down even when there’s nothing wrong and that my dad comes home drunk every night and that I might love someone but I’m scared because nobody has ever loved me back before. And I know it doesn’t matter because the sun is going to explode and kill all of humanity but even before that I’m going to die from a lightning bolt or a shark attack or old age, but it still seems like my own personal world is the only one that’s real.” Keith thinks that that’s the most words he’s ever spoken at once. 

“I feel like that, too. Like the world revolves around me and nobody else is really human. I’m sorry about your dad. You deserve someone present and someone who supports you through anything.” Lance turns his head to look into Keith’s eyes again. 

“I think I love you.” Golden eyes crinkle at the corners. Lance leans forward and their lips brush.

“Is this okay?” He nods softly. Lance presses their lips together, and it feels like everything falls into place. Keith thinks that the world truly does revolve around him in that moment. 

“I think I love you, too.”  
__

Now, I know what it feels like to take love from somebody. I know what it feels like to have someone love me like I love them, and I know that even though my art teacher loves me, and the thunder loves me, he loves me too. And I love him, more than my art teacher, and more than thunder, and more than anyone I’ve ever loved before. 

He taught me how to open up, and he knows my favorite color and what thread count my bed sheets are and what my favorite drink is, both morning and night. He cares about my alcoholic father and he’s gentle about my insecurities and he sends me funny texts throughout the day. This is what real love is. This love is the kind that laughs at my dumb jokes and hugs me just because he wants to and tells me about his day, because he wants me to know. 

Now, I still have to think about motion in one dimension to pass the AP exam, but I find there’s not really any room to think about unrequited love when I’m so busy thinking about this newer, better, deeper love. And that’s fine by me, because there’s no limit to love, especially now.

**Author's Note:**

> this is me venting cuz im salty lol thanks 4 reading !!! it's short cuz idk no excuse its just short


End file.
